The Clickocracy

McCain Volunteer's Claim of Attack Unravelled, Online and Off

By Jose Antonio Vargas
Online, no one has control over presenting an event. If something smells fishy, all the bloggingheads are on deck.

Just ask McCain-Palin volunteer Ashley Todd.

Less than a day after Todd's story of being mugged by a dark-skinned man first hit the Web, the student from College Station, Tex., told police that she'd made it all up. At a news conference this afternoon, assistant police chief Maurita Bryant said the 20-year-old said she had prior mental health problems.

But on Wednesday night, Todd claimed, she had been robbed at an ATM in Pittsburgh. After seeing a McCain bumper sticker on her car, she said, her assailant -- enraged -- had pinned her down and cut a backwards "B" onto her cheek. Todd, who is white, described the robber as a tall black man.

The Drudge Report picked it up the story from a local television Web site and gave it a big headline Thursday afternoon. A photo of Todd's face soon surfaced. Gov. Sarah Palin gave her a call; the McCain campaign issued a statement, as did the Obama campaign.

And, it seemed to many, a combustible moment rife with political, racial and class tension had arrived. "It had to happen," John Moody, a news executive at FOX, wrote on his blog Thursday night.

"If Ms. Todd's allegations are proven accurate, some voters may revisit their support for Senator Obama, not because they are racists (with due respect to Rep. John Murtha), but because they suddenly feel they do not know enough about the Democratic nominee," Moody wrote. "If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain's quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting."

But the moment Todd's tale -- and especially its accompanying photo -- went viral, the Web went into typical vetting mode. Is she for real? Where's her MySpace page? (Bloggers found it.) Her Facebook profile? (That, too.) How about her Twitter feed? (Yep.)

Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin was skeptical. One of her readers wrote Malkin: "Notice how the 'B' is backwards on the right cheek ... if you were looking in a mirror and put it on your own face ... she put it on her own face but forgot it would show up backwards." When Malkin posted her blog item at 6:43 p.m. Thursday, she wrote: "Why that McCain volunteer's 'mutilation' story smells awfully weird." Then she updated it later, after police reported inconsistencies in Todd's story. "Police to administer polygraph; conflicting evidence at scene," Malkin wrote.

Steve Huff at True Crime Report said he smelled "a rat" when he saw the photo. He started blogging about Todd on Thursday afternoon, minutes after reading about her on Drudge. By 1:06 a.m. Friday, he wrote: "Will Ashley Todd's Story Implode Tomorrow?"

"Before the Internet age, her story would have had traction for weeks. She could have spun this out for a while, even if the cops said they don't believe her," Huff told The Trail. "But on the Web people started investigating her right away. And it wasn't just bloggers on the left doing it. It's bloggers on the right, too."

"But here's a fact -- Todd set up her own crash."

This is one in a series of online columns on our growing "clickocracy," in which we are one nation under Google, with e-mail and video for all. Please send suggestions, comments and tips to vargasj@washpost. com.

Comments

inthecannula
The sky is falling!!
The sky is falling!!
Better get your work visa ready. Hate to see someone as open-minded as you leaving. If there won't be any jobs after Obama is elected you should probably get a head start on everyone else. Since so many cars are made in Mexico I understand there is a growing need for crash test dummies. And for the last sentence in your post, I didn't see where Palin fit into your story?

Posted by: jgh2 | October 26, 2008 4:06 PM

Today's NY Times Headline-

Spending Stalls and Businesses Slash U.S. Jobs
By LOUIS UCHITELLE
As the financial crisis cuts demand for American goods and services, the workers who produce them are losing their jobs by the tens of thousands.

***GREAT TIME TO ELECT A PRESIDENT WHO WOULD RAISE TAXES ON BUSINESS!!!!!***

Small Businesses will lay off!

Big Businesses will move jobs overseas!

13% Unemployment in an Obama 1st term...

(only Herbert Hoover raised taxes in a recession...what kind of a warped mind carves a B in her cheek? AND what kind of a warped mind squeezes every last drop of milk from a sick cow?)

Posted by: thecannula | October 26, 2008 12:25 AM

This whole tawdry affair is another new low for the McCain campaign. It goes a fair way in supporting a contention I've developed watching this campaign unfold - after 8 years of nightmarish republican incompetence and the selection of Palin as VP, anyone supporting John McCain ought to have their head examined.

McCain Adviser: "She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone. She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else."---SCARY!

Next thing you know, she'll be running around with a "B" carved into her cheek and a black eye.

Save our country!
Vote Obama Nov. 4

Posted by: thenotoriousflavio | October 25, 2008 8:40 PM

toritto (just a little bull):

10 more days, and one of us will be wrong.

Posted by: JakeD | October 25, 2008 6:18 PM

It will be interesting and fun to watch the GOP shrink to a few nativists haters, a couple of religious nuts, and the Kathryn Jean-Lopez's of the world in the next few years.

As long as the Rethuglican party continues to offer huge outsized tax breaks for the filthy rich and nothing for everyone else, the extremist nuts will be the only one's left carrying the GOPer banner after 2008.

I think it is going to be a while before we hear about the big tent Republican party.

IMAGINE you are the CEO of a major multinational firm. Your chief financial officer comes to you and says if you move your legal home from the United States to Bermuda the company will have a 20 percent increase in net profits. With the increased profits, the company will be able to expand production, hire more workers, more R&D, and pay stockholders a higher dividend.

However, your VP for government relations tells you that if the company changes its legal home you, as the CEO, will be accused of being unpatriotic by some members of Congress and certain presidential candidates. Even worse, these same politicians will threaten to bar your company from obtaining U.S. government contracts, and demand that the IRS and government regulatory agencies single out your company for special scrutiny.

As the CEO of the company, you know you have a fiduciary responsibility to your stockholders to maximize their economic return by all legal and ethical means. You also know that the proposal to move your company is entirely legal and would be considered good management practice. You are also aware that many of the politicians who are likely to attack you are the same people who attacked managers in other industries, like mutual funds, for not being good custodians of investors' money. Despite what thoughtful people will clearly recognize as hypocrisy, those political attack dogs can cause considerable damage to you and your company as they have to other firms engaged in similar totally legal and appropriate behavior.

The Stanley Works (tools) company, for example, had planned in 2002 to reincorporate in Bermuda, in the hope of lowering its tax bill. The move was ditched, however, after political pressure was brought to bear on the company. Subsequently, Stanley was forced to lay off about 1,000 of its U.S. staff.

Posted by: thecannula | October 25, 2008 3:47 PM

This story was instantly suspect, as the pictures of her supposed beating, her Twitter account, and her timelines all patently contradicted themselves. But the wingnutosphere (Drudge, Free Republic, Redstate etc), with the healthy assist from Fix News Channel and the McCain campaign, piled on anyway, letting their ideological blinders get in the way of reality. As usual.

And now they look like idiots. As usual.

As for Ashley Todd, being a liar and race-baiter is par for the course for College Republicans.

The ranks of the college Republicans are filled with the biggest bunch of pathetic crybabies and liars that I've ever seen. It's no wonder that the current Republican party is in a non-stop free fall towards 4th party gadfly status:

Just what the McCain campaign needs to keep itself off message. The GOP is becoming the LOP

Posted by: BFranco | October 25, 2008 3:25 PM

Just like an Aggie to carve a B in her face ....while looking in a mirror.

:-)

Higher education indeed.......

10 more days.

Posted by: toritto | October 25, 2008 3:03 PM

Just a quick observation about the carved backwards "B" on Ashley Todd's face. I was trying to explain the other day that the significance of the liberal spirit (which is a lot broader than being a "liberal") is tied to the concept of Brotherhood expressed in Beethoven's Ode to Joy. Ashley Todd, it seems to me has taken the B of Beethoven's concept and turned it into a symbol of everything that Rove and Co., have promoted as an ugly political strategy of racial polarization and political division.

No doubt the individual involved is mentally disturbed, as are some of the comments that somehow granting the humanity and interconnection of our common humanity, as Beethoven expressed it, in the Ode to Joy is somehow an expression of a communist conspiracy. Rather it is something that people of all political ideologies, all colors, genders, have in common, their common humanity. The respect of our common humanity and dignity or Brotherhood is an invisible B written on our hearts, liberals, moderates, and conserviatives alike--not the distorted mirror image "B" we saw on Ashley Todd's face.

Posted by: Jeff-for-progress | October 25, 2008 2:41 PM

I DON'T think this person should be allowed to vote!! She did a despicable thing and her voting rights should be taken away!
Obama/Biden 08'

Posted by: oneeggcream | October 25, 2008 2:37 PM

I DON'T think this person should be allowed to vote!! She did a dispicable thing and her voting rights should be taken away!
Obama/Biden 08'

Posted by: oneeggcream | October 25, 2008 2:36 PM

The rich suds guy is going to show up at the bar anyway.

Think the rich suds guy is going to move permanently overseas and give up incorporation in the U.S. and the benefits of its legal system and its markets in order to incorporate in Europe (even more ""socialist") or China ("communist") or Latin America? (naah) or India perhaps.

Remember: When you incorporate somewhere else you MAY get a more agreeable tax policy, but you also get the entire legal system and the political/economic risk.

Why the hell do you think foreigners invest so much money here?

Grow up - that rich guy got rich thanks to the economic environment in the U. S. - he benefits from it everyday.

:-)

10 more days......

Posted by: toritto | October 25, 2008 2:33 PM

Bar Stool Economics 102
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes,
it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing. -- drank nothing.
The fifth would pay $1 -- drank tap water.
The sixth would pay $3. -- drank giner-ale
The seventh would pay $7. -- drank bud
The eighth would pay $12. -- drank heineken
The ninth would pay $18. -- drank gin and tonic
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.-- drank top shelf XO and wrote it off as a business expense

the rest is bull

Posted by: thenotoriousflavio | October 25, 2008 2:32 PM

I think the young woman who pulled this stunt is profoundly disturbed. You don't mutilate your face to make a point.
That said, with the race-baiting 'Southern Strategy' of the Republican party for the last thirty years, it does not surprise me that the McCain campaign tried to run with this story. Desperation is ugly, and the Republicans are desperate.
I remember talk in the late 1980's of how electing David Dinkins as mayor of New York would give black people the license to go for 'payback'. Instead they started rebuilding their neighborhoods out of the ruins of the crack epidemic.
We're all in deep trouble today, and the possibility of a black president is not one of the problems.

Posted by: blbixler | October 25, 2008 2:05 PM

This story is both sad and concerning. Is the typical a “black man did it” supposed to make this story more believable? With all the mudslinging that has been going on against Barack, with words of untruths like “anti-American and terrorist,” makes for this false story to be even more disheartening. Did this woman believe the lies that were put out by smear campaign tactics? And yes, while the McCain camp is not "directly" responsible for what Ms. Todd has done, the deplorable words and inuendos used by this camp could have influenced her actions. Now she is claiming a mental defect as the reason for her awful story. This woman served on the McCain campaign, speaking to hundreds if not thousands of American citizens. What do you think she said to them? Scary.
Speak facts, not lies.

Posted by: justathought2008 | October 25, 2008 2:02 PM

Bar Stool Economics 101
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes,
it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do.
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed
quite happy with the arrangement, until one day,
the owner threw them a curve.
'Since you are all such good customers, he said, 'I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20.
Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.
(So he reduced their bill in proportion to what they currently paid-)
'I only got a dollar out of the $20,'declared the sixth man.
He pointed to the tenth man,' but he got $10!'

'Yeah, that's right,' exclaimed the fifth man.
'I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!'
'That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. 'Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!'
'Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison. 'We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!'

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics, University of Georgia
For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible

Posted by: thecannula | October 25, 2008 2:01 PM

First, the Pittsburgh PD did a great job. Bloggers did a great job too. Fox News played up this ridiculous story to try to attack Obama (it is a weird way to attack Obama, but Fox News is the station that called Michelle "Obama's Baby Mama," so it fits in with Fox's racist theme).

Before the fraud was exposed, McCain and Palin both called this nutcase to tell the media that they are on the side of conservative young white women and against those dangerous black hoodlums (like Obama). Just another stupid and crude campaign stunt in a long list of them by those idiots.

Posted by: Renu1 | October 25, 2008 1:24 PM

This person Ashley Todd does not realize, by claiming a Black Male did this fictious crime, could jeopardize every black man in that area! Do you know what the police do when they have a description of a 6 foot black man that is accused of a crime they aggressively seek every person who fits that description(this could be 1 to 100 black men)! I have seen innocent black males, who fit a profile go through hell! This is wrong and can get someone killed!

Posted by: Black6 | October 25, 2008 1:17 PM

I am just a 58 year old woman who bought some Trust Deeds, investing a little money and then had to foreclose. So that made me an investor to a degree, now I am fighting to survive.
Since I voted by absentee ballot and I voted McCain . . .

====

--you've obviously learned NOTHING in the past eight years. Pitifully stupid, stupid to the last.

Amazing.

..

Posted by: bracken1 | October 25, 2008 1:04 PM

How, exactly, are McCain and Palin responsible for this? Keep in mind that Obama is supposedly not responsible for infanticide just because he voted against those BORN ALIVE bills.

===

Lying must make Republicans very happy. They love lies. Outright falsehoods are their favorites, but they'll also slup up distortion, innuendo, veiled racism, and slander. Side dishes.

Their one true love is The Big Lie, and Goebbels is one of their favorite people.

..

Posted by: bracken1 | October 25, 2008 1:00 PM

What one person does should not reflect on the candidate. In this country you will see many things wrong about the police and court system.
Anyone can and they do, report many false allegations, anyone can go to court and sue you. I know this for a fact as I have spent the past 4.5 years in court defending properties in So. California. Over 30 cases, BK and Civil, when the group of white collared criminals and their corrupt attorneys filed the same case over and over, just changing an entity each time. I have been threatened, have my name forged, discovered phony recorded documents, and with phony notary signatures and no one cared in law enforcement. I am just a 58 year old woman who bought some Trust Deeds, investing a little money and then had to foreclose. So that made me an investor to a degree, now I am fighting to survive.
Since I voted by absentee ballot and I voted McCain, should the Senator be blackballed due to my circumstances, I think not. Same goes for this issue.

Posted by: cmputz195 | October 25, 2008 12:49 PM

May I suggest to those of us who find all this beyond belief that you read an old book by Lundburg titled America's 60 Families (1937). He reviews the Crash, Depression and the twenty years leading up to it. His research of government investigations illuminates everything; money, media, manipulation of the populace, robbery of the Public Domain. From Teapot Dome to the Crash, I found it supremely entertaining. But I like crime dramas.

Even the Washington Post shared in the shame parade. Its owner provided false affidavit to protect a Teapot Cabinet Secretary (Interior) and then played the "mentally ill" card so as not to have to testify before the Senate. Psych hospitals will be full of those complicit in the last eight years of shame. NY's Gov's assistant claims not paying taxes is a mental illness. Wait! Get me the PDR right now! I thought it wasn't patriotic.

Truely worth the time to run the book down and read several times. It's like a play book for the times. Get it before you can't find it anymore. Out of print and closely held by tose who know it.

A very entertaining book! You'll see the present in the past and ask yourself "These guys are so predictable, how is it we forget that?"

Posted by: abbadabba | October 25, 2008 11:55 AM

The Ashley Todd story is just another example of the McCain team's tendency to jump before checking facts. This tendency has led to many errors not the least of which is the selection of Sarah Palin as his VP choice. We do not need a president who acts first and thinks second. By the way, it is my understanding that Ms. Todd is not a "volunteer" but rather a paid campaign worker. There is a big difference between volunteers and paid staff. Have we had enough of the McCain people? I have.

Posted by: cdierd1944 | October 25, 2008 11:32 AM

You know, 67 years ago we fought a horrendous war to rid the world of Fascist dictatorships. Now it seems these same Fascists are guiding the Republican party. Someone said, and I quote, 'When Fascists come to take over America, they'll be dressed in three piece suits, carrying the Bible and wrapped in the flag.'

Posted by: tgshank | October 25, 2008 11:31 AM

Check out this video of a McCain Campaign employee threatening a journalist:

This smells of the Tanya Brawley incident. I never felt the truth on that one was clear, but the deniers said she was trying to hide her misbehavior from her family (staying out all night) rather than suffering an attack from white racist cops.

What's this woman's excuse? Mental illness? Are you sure she just couldn't stand McCain losing and thought she could help? Pretty soon, someone is going to claim that Obama is bewitching them as in the Salem Witch Trials. Oh, yeah. Sarah got immunized against that in church by a
bonafide witch doctor.

Posted by: abbadabba | October 25, 2008 11:26 AM

Right Wing Partisans Take Note:

April 5, 2003
"They are not near Baghdad. Don't believe them.... They said they entered with... tanks in the middle of the capital. They claim that they - I tell you, I... that this speech is too far from the reality. It is a part of this sickness of their plan. There is no an... - no any existence to the American troops or for the troops in Baghdad at all."
- Baghdad Bob

That's how it's done folks.

Posted by: JohnQuimby | October 25, 2008 11:22 AM

Can McCain/Palin have some blame in the Ashley Todd hoax?

YES. McCain and Palin have been running such a negative campaign and their rallys (esp Palin's) have had an air of hatred and bigotry that one can argue that they inspired Ashly Todd perpetratte this hoax. McCain has never come out and flatly called for supporters to stop their jeers at rallys and whenever the crowd cheers at a negative a statement about Obama, McCain has this nasty little smile on his face like he's deriving pleasure from it.

Posted by: thenotoriousflavio | October 25, 2008 11:18 AM

YES. McCain and Palin have been running such a negative campaign and their rallys (esp Palin's) have had an air of hatred and bigotry that one can argue that they inspired Ashly Todd perpetratte this hoax. McCain has never come out and flatly called for supporters to stop their jeers at rallys and whenever the crowd cheers at a negative a statement about Obama, McCain has this nasty little smile on his face like he's deriving pleasure from it.

Posted by: thenotoriousflavio | October 25, 2008 11:17 AM

Has any one seen this video of McCain cussing at Obama supporters at the McCain Rally? http://www.mccanes.com I cant tell if it is real or not.

Huckabee is the GOP favorite for 2012, Obama is the Dem favorite. according to a new poll at http://www.skip08.com

Posted by: pastor123 | October 25, 2008 11:06 AM

Ms. Todd was NOT just a college kid who walked in off the street and freely volunteered for the campaign.

Todd worked in New York for the College Republican National Committee before moving two weeks ago to Pennsylvania, where her duties included recruiting college students, the committee's executive director, Ethan Eilon, has said. In other words she he was a PAID employee of the College Republican National Committee.

"We are as upset as anyone to learn of her deceit, Ashley must take full responsibility for her actions," College Republican National Committee spokeswoman Ashley Barbera said in a statement.

Posted by: toritto | October 25, 2008 10:30 AM

As Fox news has said....If its a lie about Barack Obama it must be true...

Posted by: AlexP1 | October 25, 2008 10:22 AM

How, exactly, are McCain and Palin responsible for this? Keep in mind that Obama is supposedly not responsible for infanticide just because he voted against those BORN ALIVE bills.

Posted by: JakeD | October 25, 2008 9:19 AM

Well, John McCain must have once been a socialist, because it turns out that for years he supported higher taxes on the wealthy to pay for lower taxes on the middle-class.
Drain You

That's very nice to know: his CURRENT tax poicy supports a tax cut for the middle class!- WHEN DID HE SUPPORT HIGHER TAXES ON THE WEALTHY TO ISSUE WELFARE IN THE FORM OF "TAX CREDITS" to those who currently pay NO federal income tax Einstein?

Again, I'll observe Shakespeare was correct- What's In a Name?
YOUR name says it all "DRAIN YOU"- WAIT, is this OBAMA himself writing?, for certainly he wishes to drain the employers of this country by draining profit from those small businesses that employ people to give welfare check/tax credits to those who wish to be employed...encouraging unemployment and discouraging initiative (just the opposite of Bill Clinton's Welfare Reform Initiatives, but In Keeping with Karl Marx's)

"From each according to their ability, to each according to their need"
K Marx 1875
B Obama 2008

Anybody remember how just a couple of weeks ago there was a lot of talk in the media about how the inflammatory rhetoric of Palin et al might cause some unbalanced individual to go over the edge and commit a violent act?

Ms A. Todd just went over that edge, but not in the way everybody imagined.

Hateful rhetoric incites violent thinking, folks, and this incident you can trace right back to Sarah McPalin. She got the crowd stirred up, and this is the kind of s**t that happens.

BTW, I guess that since Sarah Palin didn't actually call the police and file a false report that Obama was pallin' around with terrorists, they won't brand her as delusional or mentally unbalanced. Not even now that she's insisted that her claim was not false. Maybe the Philly police ought to have a talk with her.

Posted by: philipschug | October 25, 2008 3:35 AM

Hello Republicans:

You're toast.

Posted by: CynthiaD1 | October 25, 2008 3:34 AM

The republican machine never stops to amaze me.

I was very suprised that the truth was out so fast and that the lie wasn't bought.
It is obvious that the American people are tired of the lies been fed to them and that they now are questioning "facts"

1. Same as Clinton's- Nope, Bill said in 1988 that Raising the Cap on Payroll Taxes was "REGRESSIVE" (ouch)

2. 98% of small businesses make less than 250K- ONLY if one counts everyone selling used license plates on EBAY- A Much Larger Percentage of Small businesses that EMPLOY (AND WILL LAY OFF) PEOPLE make over 250K a year.

My small business grossed many times Obama's glass ceiling last year and employed one more person this year than it will employ next year if my taxes are raised by 3% PLUS 15.65% (payroll cap elimination) as Obama would do!

So, if Obama's elected, add my small business and others like it to the big businesses already laying off this quarter- Yahoo, Ebay, Sprint, Alcoa,Chrysler, etc.
Keep those tax rates rising on employers Obama....even Bill Clinton called raising the payroll cap "Regressive"...that's what Obama's tax policy is Bill!

Posted by: thecannula | October 25, 2008 12:22 AM

HAHAHA! Oh wow...I had to check up on this again and my mouth literally dropped open. I suspected it was fake, but that's crazy-psycho fake. XD Did she not think, in the day of blogging and internet obsession, that every single blogger wouldn't find out EVERYTHING about her within five seconds of this hitting the 'net? XDD I can just imagine the fear that ran down her spine when people started commenting her Myspace page.

I kinda thought her bf probably gave her the shiner and she did some crazy stunt to cover it up. Too bad for her, she's also stupid. A MIRROR WAS HER DOWNFALL. Ell oh ell!

However, this is absolute EGG on the face of the right wing media and I just can't quit giggling. Maybe this isn't only the nail in the coffin of the McCain campaign, but Fox News in general? How can you believe ANYTHING they or the Repub blogs say, ever again? (Not that anyone should, of course.)

Again: HAHAHAHAHA

Posted by: sykadelic_chic | October 25, 2008 12:06 AM

WTF IS WRONG WITH THE MCCAIN CAMPAIGN?!?!

Every day they lie and then lie about the lie. Is it because they aren't used to being called on their bullsh^t? Even Gabriel Garcia Marquez (master of magic realism) would reject the story line of this campaign as too unbelievable.

The majority of the voting electorate isn't buying their crap anymore.

The campaign by the Republicans is all designed to take peoples minds off the fact that they have f^cked up the country, the economy and our miltary over the last eight years.

The citizens of the US are saying to the Rethuglicans, p^ss off, we are not going to vote for you regardless of what you say or do.

I'm still waiting for McCain to condemn, repudiate, denounce, and FIRE all employees involved in the initial smear including his campaign staff who were involved in the cover-up.

McCain is 100% responsible for this. The "buck" with his campaign stops only with him.

Until he condemns this, McCain is as slimy and sleezy as are his employees.

"Country First", my arse!

"Shameful and Dishonorable" should be McCain's new campaign slogan

Posted by: DrainYou | October 24, 2008 11:34 PM

The lengths that the McCain-Palin campaign will go to in order to TRY to make their case (and then have the facts totally shoot down their position) is simply astounding.

If it were not a serious matter, the misstatements of the McCain-Palin campaign would make an incredibly funny story. Talk about the Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight.

Oh yeah. I guess some of them can shoot - after all, they ate a moose after Palin's father butchered it in his garage, and then accused Palin's former brother-in-law Mike Wooten of illegally shooting it, after he divorced Palin's sister. Consistency is not their strong suit.

Posted by: patentphd | October 24, 2008 11:30 PM

A REPUBLICAN HALLOWEEN TRADITION
THE OCTOBER SURPRISE

Race innuendos, terrorist stew
More Reverend Wright evil brew
No money left, do the sums
But something wicked this way comes

Palin opens her crooked mouth
To fan the hatred in the south
‘Kill him’ blurts from drunken gums
When something wicked this way comes

October surprise will tell the tale
Will Evil win or will it fail?
Karl Rove schemes with his vile chums
And something wicked this way comes

McCain has shown that there is nothing that he will not do,
nothing he will not say to get elected.
A man of Honor?

Corporations First, Country Last.

Posted by: seemstome | October 24, 2008 11:18 PM

It's somewhat amusing that her name is
"Todd."
Also, McCain's brother Joe was caught making a 911 call complaining of a traffic backup on a drawbridge. He dropped the big
"F--- You" bomb on the 911 employee who informed him 911 was for emergencies and not traffic issues. He was then traced and was called by a 911 employee who called Joe McCain who identified himself and continued to complain angrily when told that 911 was for emergencies only. Oh the anger and arrogance of those McCain boys is so over the top.

Posted by: ernieson | October 24, 2008 10:50 PM

Asst Police Chief Maurita Bryant: "She was sort of down on the media about blowing this up into a political firestorm."

Sure, she didn't want a political firestorm when she made up a story about Obama supporters attacking innocent white girls.

Anyway, since she blames the media for her own self-inflicted wounds ... we can at least confirm she's a McCain campaign worker. Standard MO.

Posted by: bourassa1 | October 24, 2008 10:43 PM

MCCAIN'S OWN WORDS IN 2000 - HE'S A SOFT SOCIALIST FLIP-FLOPPER

STUDENT: Why is it that someone like my father who goes to school for 13 years gets penalized in a huge tax bracket because he's a doctor. Why is that - why does he have to pay higher taxes than everybody else? Just because he makes more money. How is that fair?

MCCAIN: I think you're questioning, questioning the fundamentals of a progressive tax system where people who make more money pay more in taxes than a flat across the board percentage. I think it's to some degree because we feel obviously that wealthy people can afford more. We have over the years beginning with John F. Kennedy reduced some of those marginal tax rates to make them less onerous. I believe that when you really look at the tax code the very wealthy because they can afford tax lawyers and all kinds of loopholes really don't pay as much as you think they do, when you just look at the percentages. And I think middle income Americans, working Americans, who when you count in payroll taxes, sales taxes, mortgage -- all of the, all of the taxes that working Americans pay -- I think you would also think that they also deserve very significant relief.

At that point host Chris Matthews asked for members of the audience to applaud if they support wealthier people paying a higher percentage of their incomes; there was loud applause.

STUDENT: I still don't see how that's fair...aren't we getting closer and closer to Socialism and stuff...?

MCCAIN: Look, here's what I really believe: That when you are, when you reach a certain level of comfort, there's nothing wrong with paying somewhat more. But at the same time it shouldn't be totally out of proportion.

McCain added that the "first people who deserve a tax cut are working Americans...and they're the ones I would support tax cuts for first."

Posted by: seemstome | October 24, 2008 10:41 PM

It's customary in these cases for the fabricator to be made to pay back the costs of the police investigation.

I think that Ms Todd should also be made to pay damages to every black man who was pulled over in his car, or stopped and searched on the street, in Pittsburgh in the 36 hours following her accusation.

And by the way, where did she get her black eye? Did she do that herself too? Or is this whole thing, at bottom, not primarily an attempt to discredit Obama, but an effort to explain away an embarrassing black eye?

I wonder which angry white conservative male gave her that shiner.

Posted by: kevrobb | October 24, 2008 10:30 PM

Goldwater's grandaughter supports Obama

Being Barry Goldwater's granddaughter and living in Arizona, one would assume that I would be voting for our state's senator, John McCain. I am still struck by certain 'dyed in the wool' Republicans who are on the fence this election, as it seems like a no-brainer to me.

Myself, along with my siblings and a few cousins, will not be supporting the Republican presidential candidates this year. We believe strongly in what our grandfather stood for: honesty, integrity, and personal freedom, free from political maneuvering and fear tactics. I learned a lot about my grandfather while producing the documentary, Mr. Conservative Goldwater on Goldwater. Our generation of Goldwaters expects government to provide for constitutional protections. We reject the constant intrusion into our personal lives, along with other crucial policy issues of the McCain/Palin ticket.

My grandfather (Paka) would never suggest denying a woman's right to choose. My grandmother co-founded Planned Parenthood in Arizona in the 1930's, a cause my grandfather supported. I'm not sure about how he would feel about marriage rights based on same-sex orientation. I think he would feel that love and respect for ones privacy is what matters most and not the intolerance and poor judgment displayed by McCain over the years. Paka respected our civil liberties and passed on the message that that we should conduct our lives standing up for the basic freedoms we hold so dear.

For a while, there were several candidates who aligned themselves with the Goldwater version of Conservative thought. My grandfather had undying respect for the U.S. Constitution, and an understanding of its true meanings.

There always have been a glimmer of hope that someday, someone would "race through the gate" full steam in Goldwater style. Unfortunately, this hasn't happened, and the Republican brand has been tarnished in a shameless effort to gain votes and appeal to the lowest emotion, fear. Nothing about McCain, except for maybe a uniform, compares to the same ideology of what Goldwater stood for as a politician. The McCain/Palin plan is to appear diverse and inclusive, using women and minorities to push an agenda that makes us all financially vulnerable, fearful, and less safe.

When you see the candidate's in political ads, you can't help but be reminded of the 1964 presidential campaign of Johnson/Goldwater, the 'origin of spin', that twists the truth and obscures what really matters. Nothing about the Republican ticket offers the hope America needs to regain it's standing in the world, that's why we're going to support Barack Obama. I think that Obama has shown his ability and integrity.

After the last eight years, there's a lot of clean up do. Roll up your sleeves, Senators Obama and Biden, and we Goldwaters will roll ours up with you."

Posted by: toritto | October 24, 2008 10:29 PM

Well, I hope she gets the help she needs. Someone can finally sit down with her and explain why all of her T-shirts say "NILAP\NIACCM" on them.

Charles Fried, a professor at Harvard Law School, has long been one of the most important conservative thinkers in the United States. Under President Reagan, he served, with great distinction, as Solicitor General of the United States. Since then, he has been prominently associated with several Republican leaders and candidates, most recently John McCain, for whom he expressed his enthusiastic support in January.

This week, Fried announced that he has voted for Obama-Biden by absentee ballot. In his letter to Trevor Potter, the General Counsel to the McCain-Palin campaign, he asked that his name be removed from the several campaign-related committees on which he serves. In that letter, he said that chief among the reasons for his decision "is the choice of Sarah Palin at a time of deep national crisis."

Fried is exceptionally thoughtful and principled; his vote for Obama is especially noteworthy.

Ms. Todd was NOT just a college kid who freely volunteered for the campaign.

Todd worked in New York for the College Republican National Committee before moving two weeks ago to Pennsylvania, where her duties included recruiting college students, the committee's executive director, Ethan Eilon, has said. She was a PAID employee of the College Republican National Committee.

"We are as upset as anyone to learn of her deceit, Ashley must take full responsibility for her actions," College Republican National Committee spokeswoman Ashley Barbera said in a statement.

Once again, kudos and applause to the Pittsburgh Police Department for their fine professionalism in getting to the truth in a timely fashion.

They have done the nation a great service today.

Hip Hip Hooray!!

Posted by: toritto | October 24, 2008 9:57 PM

So, working for McCain made her mental? Is that what the gist is?

Posted by: upland_bill | October 24, 2008 9:56 PM

McCain Communications Director Gave Reporters Incendiary Version Of "Carved B" Story Before Facts Were Known
By Greg Sargent - October 24, 2008

John McCain's Pennsylvania communications director [Peter Feldman] told reporters in the state an incendiary version of the hoax story about the attack on a McCain volunteer well before the facts of the case were known or established -- and even told reporters outright that the "B" carved into the victim's cheek stood for "Barack," according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions.

The McCain camp tells KDKA-TV that the victim is a 20-year old Republican Texas.

According to a campaign spokesperson, after her bumper sticker supporting McCain, the suspect said, 'Oh you're with McCain, you're with the McCain campaign? I'm going to teach you a lesson.'

Police, however, have not confirmed that.

* * *

Is there a smoking gun here with a McCain insider providing more details ahead of what the perpetrator of the hoax later gave to police?

I applaud the MSM for waiting until they hsd more information before they broke this story today. FOX noise apparently ran with the story all day yesterday. I do not watch FOX because I have seen enough in the past to know that it plays loose with the facts. Of course, as soon as the story broke yesterday, Republican bloggers were all over the internet with the story and pushing it in our faces. I assume they will not apologize. Right wingers rarely admit mistakes.

CNN showed a picture of the young woman and I saw no evidence of her being "cut" with a knife and the reverse "B" was also a red flag.

I wonder what will happen to the girl. Under most laws, she should be charged for making a false charge. She certainly attempted to bring the Obama campaign into bad light.

I suspect that she wanted to help McCain by giving physical evidence that Obama supporters were as bad or worse than McCain supporters. In this case, it backfired in a very bad way. However, FOX news has already done its damage. FOX should be required to devote as much air time to a formal retraction and it did airing the false report.

Posted by: EarlC | October 24, 2008 9:51 PM

I keep thinking of the late great Bill Hicks' comedy routine where he makes fun of people from Oklahoma. Bill's car breaks down in Oklahoma. He asks the mechanic for the phone number of the garage. He learns that his phone number is 23.

"Your phone number is 23?".

"Yep. I had to write that one down. I wrote it on my forehead... I keep callin' 32!"

Posted by: steveboyington | October 24, 2008 9:47 PM

Ms. Todd was NOT just a college kid who freely volunteered for the campaign.

Todd worked in New York for the College Republican National Committee before moving two weeks ago to Pennsylvania, where her duties included recruiting college students, the committee's executive director, Ethan Eilon, has said. She was a PAID employee of the College Republican National Committee.

"We are as upset as anyone to learn of her deceit, Ashley must take full responsibility for her actions," College Republican National Committee spokeswoman Ashley Barbera said in a statement.

Posted by: toritto | October 24, 2008 9:32 PM

The two most popular new costumes this halloween? Joe the 'unregistered' plumber and Ashley 'I got carved by a 6 foot 4 black man' Todd.

Posted by: JayKay2 | October 24, 2008 9:30 PM

This would just be an amusing backlash story for Drudge if McCain and Palin hadn't actually called this woman because of the "attack." That raises all sorts of questions...

2008 – 1965 = 43 years
Rivers of blood, years of darkness – and still searching for the light…

Posted by: BarryOR | October 24, 2008 9:23 PM

LonewackoDotCom:

Dude, is Ashley "McNut" Todd your sister or something?

I went to that link you put up...

"Show up at Obama rally's and ask questions, capture the responses on video and post them on YouTube." That's it?

Dude. Virtually EVERY McCain AND Palin interview is a joke to most normal people (ie liberals).

Like McCain, you just don't get it!

Posted by: thenotoriousflavio | October 24, 2008 9:20 PM

A few years ago, there was a story about a baltimore guy who claimed a black guy carjacked his truck and drove his boys off Rt 50 into the Choptank river .

Posted by: edlharris | October 24, 2008 9:19 PM

zcezcest1

You said:
"To the best of my knowledge, all the principles in this did the appropriate thing. No one jumped to conclusions or used it politically."

The information that Fox News and the local TV station issued came from the the local McCain campaign who without the benefit of a news source issued statements that were an embellishment of the faux victim's statements. These statements came at a time when the police were questioning and questioning over again the "victim".

Your assertion that this was handled in a responsible way is contrary to the evidence available at this time. McCain's campaign was promoting a racially charged version of the false statement and acted as if they had material information.

I also assert that when a campaign involves name calling and questioning the motives of the opponent without material support for your assertions. Lastly when there is an assertion by a campaign that Obama is responsible for the behavior of a man who is a US citizen who performed a bombing or bombings within the US at a time when Mr Obama was 8 years old there is a level of sleaze in that campaign that is historic in the last 50 years. Mr McCain gave no evidence that Mr Obama knew of these activities at the time he met Mr Ayers.

Lastly to imply that Obama is a terrorist because of this association is over the top.

When the civility of the McCain campaign campaign and when McCain refused to look at Mr Obama in the first debate and refers to him as that man in the second debate it is easy to understand how a misguided supporter could misinterpret that her behavior was acceptable because Mr McCain's behavior had arrived at a new level of incivility for a modern presidential campaign.

There is a reason that many longtime Republicans have rejected the McCain campaign and why newspapers that supported Bush do not support McCain and the nature of the McCain campaign and the unsuitability of Sarah Palin are the centerpiece of their objections.

Mr McCain needs to apologize for the behavior of his local campaign in this incident. It was irresponsible and potentially dangerous.

Posted by: Gator-ron | October 24, 2008 9:18 PM

One very useful thing this election is going to do - assuming everyone VOTES - is to put Matt Drudge in his place, in the sewer.

Posted by: officermancuso | October 24, 2008 9:15 PM

She's mentally ill, that's clear enough. I suppose that someone as mentally ill as her looks at a ticket of McCain/Palin, & thinks "These people are like me" much more than she could about the serene Obama. Yes, it looks like McCain can get a big Election Day bounce from monopolizing voters as crazy as this one.

Drudge. Fox. National Review Online - Andrew McCarthy. A rogue's gallery if there ever was one.

Posted by: officermancuso | October 24, 2008 9:13 PM

I heard Fox fanning the flames today around mid-day, including a statement that John McCain had called the woman. Of course John Moody, a Fox executive, made the idiotic statement linking McCain to race baiting. The incident itself of course was not race baiting, it was Fox's grabbing the story as any good tabloid would do, and adding hyperbole to see if it could make the story take root in their role as GOP mouthpiece. Of course I only listen to Fox to see how dumbed down and partisan they can be. They need to scare people to kepp their ratings up. O'Reilly and Hannity are two of the biggest peacocks strutting on tabloid TV.

Posted by: bfjam | October 24, 2008 9:12 PM

It was FOX news that fanned the flames of this. They just loved it! Shame on Fox. Shame Shame Shame

Posted by: pcc7407 | October 24, 2008 8:53 PM

Please be aware, McCain's media director in PA pushed this story, before all the facts were even known, and got at least one TV station in PA to run with it.

I guess he thought he was working for the McKKKain campaign

Posted by: dcwsano | October 24, 2008 8:51 PM

As could be expected, Jose Antonio Vargas isn't telling the whole truth.

A search through his archives will show that this is what Drudge did:

1. He posted a big center red headline - without a link - about the incident.

2. When a link was available, he switched back to the headline that had been there before, and put the links about the incident in the upper left corner in black, not red.

3. Today, he posted "She made it up" as his headline with her picture.

Anyway, if anyone really understands what's at stake in this election and doesn't want to help the ChicagoMachine gain a foothold in DC, help push this plan:

Charles Fried, a professor at Harvard Law School, has long been one of the most important conservative thinkers in the United States. Under President Reagan, he served, with great distinction, as Solicitor General of the United States. Since then, he has been prominently associated with several Republican leaders and candidates, most recently John McCain, for whom he expressed his enthusiastic support in January.

This week, Fried announced that he has voted for Obama-Biden by absentee ballot. In his letter to Trevor Potter, the General Counsel to the McCain-Palin campaign, he asked that his name be removed from the several campaign-related committees on which he serves. In that letter, he said that chief among the reasons for his decision "is the choice of Sarah Palin at a time of deep national crisis."

Fried is exceptionally thoughtful and principled; his vote for Obama is especially noteworthy.

:-)

Posted by: toritto | October 24, 2008 8:47 PM

Is there nothing that McCain campaigners won't stoop to? And of course, like a typical Republican bigot, her imaginary attacker was 'a black man'. When will these people get with the realities of the 21st Century? They seem to still be mired in 1860.

Posted by: laSerenissima2003 | October 24, 2008 8:45 PM

So we have a goofy McCain staffer playing to Drudge. We've had goofy college professors playing this the other way - I'm too tired to look up the links, but discerning readers know what I'm talking about.

What's really obnoxious about the hard right is how eagerly supposedly respectable commentators hopped on this bandwagon. It was going to be their "October Surprise".

Surprise!

Posted by: officermancuso | October 24, 2008 8:36 PM

This situation is also similar to Charles Stuart who murdered his pregnant wife Carol in Boston. He said that they had been attacked by a big man who shot his wife. The Boston police obligingly rounded young black men in a number of neighborhoods. A couple of reporters actually investigated Stuart's story and figured out instantly that he had lied. Eventually, Stuart killed himself.

Posted by: Simon2 | October 24, 2008 8:33 PM

A number of people are remarking on the similarity with the Susan Smith story in 1994. That was when Susan Smith, a young mother of 2 toddlers in SC claimed that she had been carjacked by a black man and that her sons were in the car. It later turned out that she had driven the car into a lake and killed them.

Now when that story broke Newt Gingrich said it exemplified the moral depravity that the Democrats had brought America to! But t also came out (but not widely reported) that in the pathetic life of Susan Smith she had been having sex with her stepfather. And get this - he was head of the South Carolina branch of the Christian Coalition!!

Please! We must send a resounding message to the Republicans in less then two weeks: Hit the Road!

Posted by: CynthiaD1 | October 24, 2008 8:19 PM

Many thanks to the Pittsburg Police Dept. for getting to the truth so quickly.

Well done.

Posted by: toritto | October 24, 2008 8:18 PM

for this white student to blame the "b" on her face on a "dark-skinned" mugger ... is soooo American right-wing.

One change, I admit, did occur under Republican dictates of W: financial decisions are now and forever in Europe and China & India. Greenspan & his successor can whistle Dixie backwards & forwards in high C, yet nobody in their right mind will listen to them in the financial world, the real world, for a very long time to come, if ever again.

The 1929 October Krach started in New York City. The 2008 melt-down, 60 years later, again in the US, this time in the Republican Bush & Cheney-land.

Need one say more?

Are we going (under McCain/Palin) to have America eradicate the savings of today's 6.5 billion people - for a third time?

It's really high time for Republican America to go back to normal grade school, get a normal education, in normal Math & normal Science courses, instead of in weird religious sects & its own version of christian "creationist" evolution and its ubiquitous Republican concomitant of self-righteous jingoism.

Posted by: hchiba | October 24, 2008 8:15 PM

This proves once and for all how vile the McCain/GOP campaign has become. They claim not to engage in race baiting, but jump in with both feet when a crazy race baiter tries such an idiotic stunt. Every day more moderate Republicans abandon McCain and support Obama. Is it hard to understand why?

Posted by: dcwsano | October 24, 2008 8:14 PM

Robroy1 wrote, "This was coordinated by the McCain campaign."

I'm an Obama partisan, and I don't mind saying that Rob's post is offensive. It may not be popular to point it out here, oh well.

Posted by: officermancuso | October 24, 2008 8:12 PM

Why did Fox's John Moody say "It had to happen"?

A report of a black man attacking a white woman "had to happen"?

Apparently Fox News can't possibly imagine a world in which that wouldn't happen.

The Right has become such a cesspool this year.

Posted by: BBpd | October 24, 2008 8:08 PM

This story is right out of a Cohen Brothers movie.

How did Ashley Todd come up with such a ridiculous fraud? How did she execute it? (Obviously, she used a mirror for the "B"; but what about the black eye?) Also, why didn't she use an "O"? (It's the letter that represents the Obama campaign.) How come she said it was a black guy ...

Oh. Right.

Posted by: terry1960 | October 24, 2008 8:06 PM

CynthiaD1: I checked out that link.

McNuts are like onions. Peel back one McNut and you find another McNut who rational is even more outrageous than the prior.

Posted by: thenotoriousflavio | October 24, 2008 8:04 PM

Loved Truth17's comment.

What's astonishing is that anyone with two brain cells to rub together who looks at this girl immediately notices that the B is backwards, and immediately guesses what this signifies, that she did it in a mirror.

Yet the entire McCain campaign apparently never made this connection, even after bloggers from both sides had pounced on it. Are they punch-drunk? Their stupidity seems bottomless.

Posted by: kevrobb | October 24, 2008 8:03 PM

I bet TINY FEY will show up with a backward "B" on her cheek on SNL tomorrow!

THAT WOULD BE A PANT WETTER!

Posted by: thenotoriousflavio | October 24, 2008 7:59 PM

Nothing but republican evil has ever come from Texas. Please secede...and take Alaska with you.

Imagine that? A republican youth thinking that lying and cheating, race baiting and self-abuse are the american way.

Posted by: mot2win | October 24, 2008 7:58 PM

I held my breath this morning and took at the postings on the FOX NEWS site. The conservadrones were all over this like flys on poop (EXACTLY like flys on poop).

The conservadrones were coming up with every rationalization for this thing to be real...

the attacker was dislexic
the attacker was standing over her head
etc etc

My immediate suspicion yesterday is why wouldn't a crazed Obama supporter carve an "O". It's so much easier than a "B". And when I saw the photo, I wondered how she could have sat still while "he" carved the perfect (although backwards) "B".

Posted by: menloshark | October 24, 2008 7:56 PM

Ladies and Gentlemen: if you think that this story is outrageous you haven't heard anything yet!! There's a Right wing web site called, The Right Perspective, who are claiming that this woman is really an Obama supporter who did this in an agent provocateur way to discredit McCain!!

You just can't make this stuff up. Who needs SNL when we have Right Wing America to provide the real laughs!

Posted by: CynthiaD1 | October 24, 2008 7:56 PM

What's left out is that McCain's spokesman embellished this story into a politcal crime. It's a disgusting divisive game.

Posted by: Dick_Tuck | October 24, 2008 7:55 PM

"It had to happen," said John Moody, a news executive at FOX.

Um, what exactly did he think had to happen?, this curious white girl wants to know. Take a guess, hmmmmm. Even though the internet is full of wackos, thank goodness bloggers have been so instrumental in shooting down fake news.

Posted by: SaladSD | October 24, 2008 7:55 PM

This was coordinated by the McCain campaign.

Posted by: RobRoy1 | October 24, 2008 7:53 PM

Say what you will about Ashley Todd, she has given a grateful nation a new, easy, fun and topical Halloween costume. Fake shiners and backward B's will be everywhere next week.

Posted by: pundito | October 24, 2008 7:53 PM

CynthiaD1 posted:"Where is that forum poster on WaPo who was pasting the original story all over this site yesterday?"

Which McNut are you talking about? I know MarkInAustin posted something.

(I still feel bad about yesterday. Sorry again.)

Posted by: thenotoriousflavio | October 24, 2008 7:49 PM

I am surprised that Palin and McCain aren't exploiting this story and pretending that it really happened.

After all, Sarah Palin, after troopergate, deliberately lied for days about the findings.

The Ayers connection, after being debunked, was still used by McCain. This, despite the fact that a supporter and endorser of McCain was the patron who put him on the Board of her foundation! Has McCain called Leonore Annenberg an abetter of terrorists? No he proudly declared she was one of 100 former ambassadors who endorsed him.

The RIGHT was going to hump this story to election day...looks like they screwed themselves.

ASHLEY TODD IS THE PERFECT SYMBOL FOR THE MCCAIN CAMPAIGN

Forget about Joe the Pseudo-Plumber it's all about ASHLEY THE McNUT now!

Posted by: thenotoriousflavio | October 24, 2008 7:33 PM

Leave her alone she was only trying to help, and she's one of the more educated McCain supporters, lucky for her she didn't go all the way and raped her self.

Posted by: zubree | October 24, 2008 7:32 PM

To the best of my knowledge, all the principles in this did the appropriate thing. No one jumped to conclusions or used it politically.

Now many of the McCain supporters are another story, hoping to capitalize on this incident.

The ugliness of this will no doubt leave many people upset. Worse still, for a few people, the truth of what happened won't matter. It will just reinforce prejudices. And that is the saddest part of all of it.

Posted by: zcezcest1 | October 24, 2008 7:31 PM

birdaa wrote, "this idiot even thinking she could pull off such a stunt was foiled by a MIRROR!"

That was my first thought.

Posted by: officermancuso | October 24, 2008 7:22 PM

"The story was instantly suspect..." Well, instantly suspect to anyone with half a brain, which lets out the McCain campaign, Matt Drudge and Fox News.

I heard radio interviews today with McCain supporters in Ohio who "are afraid that if Obama is elected, blacks all over the country will riot in 'payback'". Payback for what, they didn't say.

I believe that in these last few days before this most vile of all Republican campaigns is mercifully over, we're going to see more and more Swift-Boat-style lies and dirty tricks, and fear of "Black payback" will be the weapon of choice. McCain has nothing left to campaign with but the same kind of fear Bush-Rove and Co. have used for the past 8 years. Anyone who thinks McCain is an "honorable" candidate doesn't know much about McCain.

Posted by: bbrown95 | October 24, 2008 7:17 PM

The McCain campaign jumped the gun without thinking....as usual, with an assist from Drudge and Fixed News Channel....as usual.

They should be held 100% accountable for pushing a false story without checking it.

They should be crucified for pushing the racial aspect.

It was the McShame camapign who declared the "B" on her face was for Barack Obama.

McCain should be made to publicly "denounce and repudiate" this behavior on Meet the Press.
.

Posted by: DrainYou | October 24, 2008 7:16 PM

Yeah, this just put the final nail in the coffin of the McCain campaign. Outright , disgusting race-baiting doesn't work, even when smart people attempt it. But this idiot even thinking she could pull off such a stunt was foiled by a MIRROR! How stupid are these people and what do they take us for?

Posted by: birdaa | October 24, 2008 7:05 PM

So "Ashley the white girl victim" is just another hoax like Joe the plumber. Perhaps she'll run for Congress too. She fits right in--carved the B backwards because she did it in the mirror. Perhaps she can help Sarah keep an eye on Russia?

Posted by: RichfromPhilly | October 24, 2008 7:01 PM

I just hope all the people who were so eager to spread the news of the attack will hear this. I'm still tired of correcting people who spread that bogus Michelle Obama eating lobster and caviar at the Waldorf B.S.

Posted by: sarahabc | October 24, 2008 6:57 PM

the story is that the McCain supporters could spin a claim out of it that wouldn't have made sense even if the story were true. Voters would have no reason to suddenly wonder who Obama was just because some street criminal assaulted Todd. no logic. doesn't get in the way of good slime.

sort of like the minister asked to give the invocation for Palin and asked the Lord to help McCain win to protect his reputation because those praying to Bhudda and Allah for an Obama win would think their god was bigger if he did. That there are ministers this uneducated (Bhudda isn't a god to bhuddists) or this dumb (to think that the Lord needs to be asked to protect His reputation, or that it wouldn't be equally plausible if Obama won that the Lord answered Obama's prayers), and that those are the ministers Palin "pals around with." is scary.

Posted by: JoeT1 | October 24, 2008 6:57 PM

Andrew McCarthy at National Review Online couldn't wait to get the word out about this alleged mugging. He's the fellow, you may recall, who suspects that Obama's books were ghost-written by Bill Ayers.

And Drudge has further discredited himself, unlikely as that might seem.

Can we get out the brooms yet, and sweep away the detritus of the past eight years?

VOTE

Posted by: officermancuso | October 24, 2008 6:52 PM

Chrysler announced it will lay off 25% of its white collar workers - up to 5,000 jobs.

The outrageous part about this is not the fact that this woman made up a crazy stunt. The McCain campaign cannot control crazy nuts. But, the fact that the PA headquarters of the McCain campaign tried to play this up to score political points shows precisely what's wrong with McCain. Even if it were true, you don't incite the public by aggrandizing the story and juicing it up with sundry concocted quotes. It is a shame that the McCain campaign tried to pick this up and run with it! These guys basically vet nothing. Reminds me of how they chose Palin and didn't realize that Joe the Plumber would actually benefit from Obama's tax plan! It's called vetting the story. The McCain campaign should try it! What's next? Iraq has WMD? Oh, we already did that one...

Posted by: Truth17 | October 24, 2008 6:40 PM

Maybe the McCain-Palin make-up artist (Sarah Palin's top-paid aid) can convert the backwards "B" into an "8" -- representing the number of years that Obama-Biden will be busy cleaning up after all the other Republican frauds perpetrated in recent years.

Posted by: terry1960 | October 24, 2008 6:36 PM

Is it surprising that someone connected to a campaign that's been this dirty and negative would try to pull of this Willie Horton stunt?

And how do we know it wasn't orchestrated with at least some local GOP operatives? It does have the sulfur whiff of Karl Rove to it.

Posted by: B2O2 | October 24, 2008 6:36 PM

Is the McCain volunteer hoax an authorized dirty trick?

Is this why the McCain campaign considered PA in play? Because they knew this was coming?

This story was instantly suspect, as the pictures of her supposed beating, her Twitter account, and her timelines all patently contradicted themselves. But the wingnutosphere (Drudge, Free Republic, Redstate etc), with the healthy assist from Fix News Channel and the McCain campaign, piled on anyway, letting their ideological blinders get in the way of reality. As usual.

And now they look like idiots. As usual.

As for Ashley Todd, being a liar and race-baiter is par for the course for College Republicans.

The ranks of the college Republicans are filled with the biggest bunch of wussies, crybabies and liars that I've ever seen. It's no wonder that the current Republican party is in a non-stop free fall towards 4th party gadfly status:

Message to JakeD - She was so dumb she made the B backwards on her own face while looking in the mirror. This is the intelligence level with which you are associated.

Posted by: gregp1 | October 24, 2008 6:22 PM

This is truly disgusting. It reminds me of Susan Smith, the woman who killed her children and blamed it on a black guy. Fortunately nobody was hurt (except herself) in this case, but she has permanently tarred the McCain campaign with race baiting. This is every bit as bad as burning a cross on a black man's yard. She should go to jail for a long time and the McCain campaign needs to make a prompt and strong statement condemning her for playing with fire like this.